Each year, Colorado Craft Beer Week is dedicated to celebrating Colorado’s craft breweries, pubs, and restaurants. There are special events, festivals, one-of-a-kind beer releases, and more, from a variety of your favorite breweries. In its third year, the Colorado Brewers’ Guild Collaboration Fest brings together a Colorado craft brewery, with a friend or neighbor that may be next door, or across the world. This years’ event will feature 75 collaboration brews, finely crafted by the best in the business.

For us at Odell Brewing, reconnecting with our former co-worker and brewer at Stone Brewing, Laura Ulrich, was an easy decision. Laura spent the day brewing with our Pilot System/Barrel Aging Manager, Brent Cordle and here is what she had to say…

Q: What are you brewing today for Collaboration Fest?

A: A stout with cocoa, coffee, raspberry puree to be aged in rum and whiskey barrels and then blended for the final product. We’ll call it… Reunification.

Q: What flavors can we expect from this beer?

A: A blend of coffee and chocolate will dominate with a balance from the rum/whiskey blends and a light raspberry tart finish.

Q: What is your experience in the craft beer industry? Is it true you have roots with Odell Brewing?

A: I started at Odell Brewing around 2002. At first I worked as a production tech. I worked on the bottling line and cleaned lines at local accounts. I left in March of 2004 and started at Stone Brewing. I’ve been in the industry for 14+ years. When Brent reached out to Stone Brewing to do a collaboration for Collaboration Fest, I was flattered to have the opportunity to come back and brew with him.

Q: What is it like to be a brewer in the craft beer industry?

A: I love what I do, but it is not easy. You have to work hard to get the job done. I am the first female brewer at Stone Brewing Co., but most people think the job is more glamorous than it is. Brewers are glorified janitors. I’m not afraid to get dirty or speak up. If you want to be involved you need to speak up and have a voice. It’s okay to say what you want and be confident.

We are so fortunate to have an organization like Partners Mentoring Youth here in Northern Colorado, an agency whose mission is to “create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships between positive adult role models and youth facing challenges in their personal, social and academic lives.” Odell Brewing Company now boasts 2 co-worker mentors and their testimony leads me to believe that these deserving young people have had just as profound an effect on them! It has been our pleasure each year to sponsor one of PMY’s largest annual events, the Sharin’ O’ the Green 5K that takes walkers, joggers and runners trotting through beautiful Old Town Fort Collins. A majority of racers stay to enjoy our local St. Patrick’s Day Parade and racers over 21 years old can enjoy a complimentary Odell beer. This truly Fort Collins event has become a tradition that we are proud to be a part of! Please consider supporting Partners Mentoring Youth by entering the Sharin’ O’ the Green, giving a small amount of your time time to a young person in need of a friend or donating what you can to this incredible organization!

Fort Collins boasts an incredible community of creative and innovative members that all seem to want to better this town and the people that live here. It’s no surprise that the Book Trust (now a national organization that works in tandem with scholastic books) began as the dream of a teacher at our very own Tavelli Elementary to get books into the hands of every kid at school. She knew that “book choice and ownership are fundamental in promoting literacy. Children who are free to choose what they read are more likely to read and that the number of books in a home has the same impact on a child’s level of education attainment as parental educational levels. The Book Trust program allows children the opportunity to fall in love with reading by choosing their own books and building a home library.” The Book Trust teams up with elementary schools to make sure that kids that receive free and reduced lunch also have an opportunity to place orders of up to $7 on each Scholastic book order, so far they’ve served 35,000 students this year, delivering over 800,000 books!

“Our team is dedicated to closing the literacy gap by inspiring a passion for reading among some of the nation’s neediest children. Learn more about the team that believes a few individuals can make a big difference.” If you’d like to learn more about Book Trust, visit them here: http://www.booktrust.org/about/